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Oil & Gas
Shell told its workers to stay away from the oil city of Warri as Nigerian troop reinforcements were sent in after four days of ethnic violence left at least 30 dead and drove 3,000 from their homes.
Shell said its workers have been directed to stay away from the firm's Warri office while the trouble continues.
"We asked them to go home pending the resolution of the crisis. Our immediate concern is the safety of our staff. We hope the problem will be resolved quickly," a spokesman said.
Meanwhile, the governor of Delta State cut short his annual holiday to jet back to the divided city in southern Nigeria's unruly Niger Delta, where witnesses said sporadic gunfire could be heard from one part of town after a relatively peaceful night.
"The battalion there is creating a buffer zone between the two warring communities," defence spokesman Colonel Ganiyu Adewale told AFP, adding that the troop commander on the ground had asked for reinforcements.
"The request has been granted, and logistics and other things are now being put in place to enable the reinforcing troops to arrive immediately, in the next few days," he added.
Governor James Ibori, who earlier this year moved the base of his state government to Warri to enable him to focus on the crisis, cut short a visit to the US to seek a solution to a local turf war which has raised concerns on international oil markets.
"It appears the warring parties have heeded the advice of the governor to lay down their arms and embrace peace. The security forces are fully in charge of the situation," Ibori's spokesman Sheddy Ozoene told AFP.
A spokesman for the Nigerian Red Cross and several local residents -- including leaders of the warring Ijaw and Itsekiri factions -- confirmed that the fiercest fighting had died down overnight.
But 3,000 people have fled the area to seek shelter with friends and relatives, Red Cross spokesman Patrick Bawa said.
"It is quiet now. There has been no incident since last night. Soldiers and policemen are patrolling the steets," Johnson Onoro, a local chief among the city's third ethnic group, the Urhobo, told AFP by telephone.
"But businesses are still shut. Banks, offices and the NPA (Nigeria Port Authority) are yet to reopen," he added.
Fighting broke out in Warri on Friday, when raiding between the rival Itsekiri and Ijaw groups in the delta swamps spilled over into the city.
Both sides in the fighting have clashed with security forces, and an unofficial AFP tally of police and witness reports puts the death toll at 30. The Nigerian Red Cross said 3,000 people have fled their homes.
The communities have been at loggerheads since March, when tensions over control of local government districts in an area dotted with oil wells and lucrative business opportunities erupted in violence.
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